By Larry Rulison Business writer

Published 1:00 am, Tuesday, August 18, 2009

ALBANY — National Grid can no longer keep portions of its $290 million "smart grid" plan out of public view barring a court order.

In a ruling made last Thursday, the state Public Service Commission determined that the London-based utility cannot withhold financial details of the project from the public.

The project involves testing what's known as "smart grid" technologies in Saratoga County and the Syracuse area that are expected to help consumers and businesses better manage their electricity usage.

One of the most anticipated parts of the plan is installing so-called smart meters in homes that provide consumers with real-time electricity pricing and may one day be able to communicate with appliances in the home, telling them when power is cheapest.

Last month, the PSC gave National Grid permission to fund half of the project through customer bills.

The other half is expected to come from $4 billion in grants set aside by the Department of Energy through the federal stimulus package.

But large sections of National Grid's filing with the PSC, made back in April, were blacked out, or redacted, by the utility.

That's not unusual. PSC rules allow utilities to withhold information from the public to protect trade secrets, confidential commercial information and data about "critical infrastructure" such as power lines, substations and control centers that could compromise safety.

National Grid said the sections were blacked out to protect the safety of the utility's system. It also argued that it needs to keep secret sensitive cost estimates that could influence bids by suppliers to the project.

The Times Union sought an unredacted version of the filing through the state's Freedom of Information Law in April.

Steven Blow, the PSC's record access officer, determined in May that National Grid could protect information that would jeopardize the electrical system — but it couldn't keep financial information secret.

"None of the information asserted to be trade secrets or confidential commercial information warrants an exception from disclosure," Blow wrote.

National Grid appealed Blow's decision, but his ruling was upheld by the PSC on Aug. 13.

PSC spokeswoman Anne Dalton said that the PSC will make public a new version of National Grid's filing — with new financial details available — within 15 business days unless National Grid can obtain a court order blocking the release of the information. The waiting period is designed to give the utility the option to get a court to intervene on its behalf.

National Grid spokesman Patrick Stella declined to comment on the ruling or if the company plans to seek a court injunction.

The Department of Energy is expected to decide which smart grid projects get funding by November, spokeswoman Jen Stutsman said. She said that applications for funding are kept secret by the department.

Larry Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.